Democracy Hypocrisy (look what scotty said about Uzbekstan)

[rodeodance]

http://www.americanprogressaction.org
May 18, 2005

> UZBEKISTAN
> Democracy Hypocrisy
.....
>
> THE MUTED RESPONSE: The U.S. response to the massacre has been strangely muted. White House spokesman Scott McClellan initially seemed to blame the dead protestors, saying, "The people of Uzbekistan want to see a more representative and democratic government, but that should come through peaceful means, not through violence." He also parroted Karimov's line, blaming the violence on "some members of a terrorist organization that were freed from prison." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher concurred, saying while "everywhere people have the right to express their grievances … but grievances should be pursued through a peaceful process." Even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who held a press conference to stress U.S. concern with the situation, qualified, "Nobody is asking any government to deal with terrorists." They seem unconcerned with the fact that this directly contradicts the White House rationale for the bloody invasion of Iraq.
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> LOVING KARIMOV: The administration forged close ties to Karimov. Bush met with the repressive leader in March 2002; after that meeting, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice reported, "I was recently in a meeting with the President, with a central Asian leader, with Karimov, in which he said to him, yes, I appreciate what you've done in the war on terrorism, this is terrific." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took grinning photographs with him. Even former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill gushed, "It's a great pleasure to have an opportunity to spend time with someone with both a very keen intellect and a deep passion about the improvement of the life of the people of this country..........."
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> KARIMOV LISTENS TO WHAT WE DO, NOT WHAT WE SAY: Rice did call on Karimov to institute reform. Karimov, however, has openly ignored any admonishments of his behavior, secure in the knowledge that he has near-unconditional support from the Pentagon. Last summer, for example, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to cut off $18 million in aid for Uzbek soldiers, charging the country had not improved its brutal human rights record. Weeks later, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers publicly called the cut "very shortsighted" and promptly announced the U.S. would give $21 million for bioterrorism defense. The State Department, under pressure, then restored $7 million of the suspended aid.
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> TAKING ADVANTAGE OF TORTURE: The United States has not only overlooked the atrocities that regularly occur in Uzbekistan; the White House has also tried to use the country to do its dirty work. The New York Times recently reported the government has regularly sent terror suspects to Uzbekistan, even knowing the country's reputation for beating and asphyxiating prisoners, boiling body parts, using electroshock on genitals and "plucking off fingernails and toenails with pliers."

[tanyev]

1. Wasn't that Newsweek's fault, too?